Naomi Watts on doing 'The Impossible'

MOVIES

Pam Grady

Updated 6:06 am, Sunday, December 16, 2012

Naomi Watts plays a mother struggling to survive with her son (Tom Holland) after a tsunami in "The Impossible," based on the disaster that struck Thailand and other countries on Dec. 26, 2004.
Photo: Jose Haro, Summit Entertainment

There is a scene near the beginning of Naomi Watts' new drama "The Impossible" where she and Ewan McGregor and the three youngsters who play their children are driving along a lush, tropical road in Thailand. The beauty of the surroundings is breathtaking and it is easy to envy Watts for having a job that can take her to such a paradise.

But then a few scenes later a tsunami hits and she is pulled into a maelstrom of rushing water, slammed over and over again into debris and plunged under the waves. It's fake, of course, but it cannot have been easy to shoot. Suddenly, Watts' line of work doesn't look quite so glamorous.

"Always with water - it's the golden rule, there are no exceptions - it's tough," the actress, 44, says during a conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival, where "The Impossible" made its world premiere. "We had a month in the water in Spain and it was - I'm too old! It was brilliantly done. They had this fantastic wave machine worked out with these like almost giant flower pots, so that we were safe.

"Although we were being pushed by this unbelievable current, we were always strapped into this cup kind of thing or pot. Nonetheless, you were going under all the time. I mean, I cannot imagine what this family and countless others went through, victims, survivors.

"Just that month, it seems ridiculous to say it out loud, given what they went through, but I honestly felt like there was no performing in those moments, because you were guzzling mouthfuls of water and you were terrified and you were put into this situation where you knew you were safe, but it was still really difficult," she adds. "It was intense. Like I said, I feel like I can't do action movies at my age."

"The Impossible" is based on a true story, one of the many that emerged after a powerful undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggered a massive tsunami in Thailand and 13 other countries on Dec. 26, 2004, leaving nearly a quarter of a million people dead, many missing and communities destroyed.

The movie reunites much of the team behind the acclaimed 2007 horror film "The Orphanage," including director Juan Antonio Bayona, screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez, cinematographer Óscar Faura, composer Fernando Velázquez and producers Belén Atienza and Álvaro Augustin. The family that Watts, McGregor, et al are representing, the Alvarez Belons, are also Spanish. When this otherwise Spanish production decided to look outside of its borders for its stars, Sanchez's script arrived in Watts' in-box.

"Right away, I was flicking the pages and thinking, 'Wow, this is really powerfully done, the writing is great,' " she ways. "Obviously, the story I knew very well. Then they came over and met with me in New York, Juan Antonio and Belén, and I just liked them as people, firstly. What they had to say about the material, and there's something about the Spanish, they're just so OK with confronting this big stuff, this emotional, powerful stuff.

"There've been tears with them since day one, and I'm sure if we sat in this room together now, they'd go there. They'd just go there. They don't hold it in, and that was sort of what our first meeting was like."

The tears came, as well, when Watts met Maria Belon, the woman on whom her character is based, in Spain. They would see each other often during the shoot, when Belon would visit the set. Watts remembers one time in particular, a chaotic day on location in Thailand, when she took the other woman's hand before filming a scene to connect with her and center herself before stepping before the cameras. The first meeting, though, was more intimate and emotional.

'Still very raw'

"It was almost like it had been leading up to this moment for such a long time, and then we sat down in front of each other and it was like - everything is still very raw with her," says Watts, a native of Kent, England.

"I didn't speak. I wanted to wait until she spoke. The tears came. It's still very, very raw, and she'll never forget that moment. She's moved on with her life, but it's still there with her, and I think having the opportunity to tell this story and then meet with me was a moment for her, and of course it was for me, too. We just held each other and cried for a little while. Then we started talking and got into the work."

The other key relationship for Watts on the movie was with Tom Holland, a star on London's West End in the musical "Billy Elliot," who makes his screen debut as Watts and McGregor's oldest son, Lucas. Holland was just 14 when "The Impossible" started shooting, and Bayona was keen to make him comfortable with his movie mother. In an effort to build trust, the director had Watts and the teen draw each other, sent them running across a darkened stage, shouting out random words, and assigned other exercises.

"It was all kinds of stuff you learn in drama school to take away inhibitions, and some of it felt like it was really serious work and some of it was just fun," Watts says. "It was Tom's first time, so he was completely green, but so open, and what he had to go through. And what Juan Antonio got out of him - he wasn't at all inaccessible, everything was right there on the surface. He gave and gave. He just loved the experience and was soaking it up. I think he will be an extraordinarily gifted talent and go wherever he wants to go."

Both stars parents

Watts and McGregor are both parents, so it was relatively easy to form a credible bond with Holland as well as Oaklee Pendergast and Samuel Joslin, the boys playing their younger children. All of the kids had siblings with them, and there were other children in the cast. Watts had her two young sons with partner Liev Schreiber with her.

"It's in the in-between moments that you create trust and get the kids to feel safe," she says. "All of the kids were just mixing together. It was almost like the bigger moments were off camera, where we were all just having fun and everything.

"The kids were all extraordinary," she adds. "We became a little family unit. It was an adventure." {sbox}